Policy Manual sample

MDT Home Health Care Agency, Inc. PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES IN THE HOME CARE WORKFORCE “Boundaries are present in many aspects of our daily lives. Speed limits, office ours, dress codes, joke telling, and eye contact are all examples of boundaries. In interpersonal relationships, boundaries serve to maintain one’s identity, protect one’s personal space, and allow for harmonious interactions with others…. Professional boundaries are essential to protect the patient’s comfort level and sense of safety, and to ensure the patient’s best interests always remain the overriding consideration. When professional boundaries are violated, patients may experience confusion, shame, self-doubt, anger, sadness, or mistrust. ….” The home healthcare professions have never been static in terms of their own disciplinary boundaries, nor in their role or status in society. Healthcare provision has been defined by changing societal expectations and beliefs, new ways of perceiving health and illness, the introduction of a range of technologies and, more recently, the formal recognition of particular groups through the introduction of education and regulation. It has also been shaped by both inter-professional and profession-state relationships forged over time. Our field healthcare workforce accounts for the greatest proportion of spending, and holds the key to the quality of healthcare delivery, despite the importance of the workforce, there is a lack of a coherent theory to underpin workforce development. This in-service aims to contribute to the current understanding of our workforce development by describing ways that our field healthcare workforce can evolve as a result of the pressures on inter-professional boundaries. Why is the workforce changing? The changes are believed to be the result of developments in technology, education, research evidence and new systems of purchasing, on-line access, internet, organizing and regulating the workforce. Recently, disciplinary boundaries have come under new pressures as a result of staffing shortages in home health, nursing, therapy and the allied health professions. Objectives: 1. Identify the meaning of, and importance of establishing, and maintaining professional boundaries. 2. Identify how to maintain confidentiality and protect personal and medical information belonging to the Agency 3. Identify our Home Care Program requirements related to documentation and maintenance of documentation for the Agency 4. Identify information and reportable events to be reported to the Case Manager (CM) and the correct time frames for reporting. 5. Identify the specific actions that are not acceptable behaviors and are not permitted under the Agency Policy & Procedures. 6. Identify what is impermissible involvement in patient’s legal matters and identify limitations of a staff as caregiver - not decision maker, and exceptions listed in the Conditions of Participation. 7. Identify State, Federal and Accreditation standards of care, regulations and laws. In our home health care setting, licensed staff work one-on-one with their patients and often spend many hours in the patient’s home. It is not surprising that boundary issues occur more frequently in the home care setting as oppose to other areas such as an emergency department or medical- surgical unit. Our field staff face many challenges as the patient’s often require long term and sometimes intensive care within their homes. Some of the many attributes that our licensed health care staff possess are compassion, empathy, and the desire to advocate for their patients. There can sometimes be a fine line between utilizing these attributes to provide care for the patient and violating professional boundaries. This in-service is designed to educate our field staff on maintaining professional boundaries. The Importance of Establishing and Maintaining Professional Boundaries: Professional boundaries are necessary to perform objective assessments, carry out orders appropriately, make professional clinical decisions, provide education, and exercise good clinical judgment to determine and meet the needs of the patients. Home Health Agency. - - Personnel/Operations Policies B-162